A survey has revealed that more than half-a-million Britons only clean their sheets thrice a year, allowing some 10 million bugs and dust mites to settle in for a night cap alongside them.

Believe it or not, half-a-million Britons only wash their sheets three times a year.

A survey has revealed that more than half-a-million Britons only clean their sheets thrice a year, allowing some 10 million bugs and dust mites to settle in for a night cap alongside them.

Londoners are the worst culprits with a quarter of those polled leaving it at least a month before washing their bed linen; eight per cent of people in Northern Ireland are the same with one in six doing it only once a month, it found.

According to the survey, under-25s tended to have the dirtiest sheets, with one in 10 admitting to washing theirs only six times a year, and half of the respondents admitted to eating in bed.

Houseproud over-55s aired their dirty laundry on average three times a month, it found.